Okada riders are snatching our wives, say protesting police constabularies in Osun

By Deborah Oladejo, Osogbo

Some police special constabularies on Wednesday stormed the streets of Osogbo, Osun State capital to protest nonpayment of 18-month salary allegedly owed by the government.

The protesters are the 480 youths recruited as constabularies into the Nigeria Police Force to complement the police in maintaining security in Osun State.

The protesting constabularies gathered at Oke-Fia roundabout, before they moved through Alekuwodo to Olaiya junction to register their displeasure over the unpaid salary.

The police, in uniforms, were armed with placards with different inscriptions like “Pay our salary now”, “Okada rider are sleeping with our wives”, “Pay us our 18months salary”, “pay us our stipends and allowances”, “18 months without kobo”, among others.

They complained that they have not been paid any salary since the completion of their training in May 2021.

Speaking with newsmen, Constable Tijani Adewale said despite their salaries not being paid, they were still committed to duties.

He disclosed that not less than three constabularies have lost their lives in the course of discharging their duties.

He said: “We have gone to the local government, honourables and dignitaries and yet nothing has been done.

“We lost three persons in Ikire and one in Iree. These people died in the course of discharging their duty. We are very dutiful despite the fact that we have not been paid a dime.  Due to unpaid allowances, tricycle and Okada riders have snatched our wives because of inability to take care of them.”

Addressing the protesters, the state Police Commissioner, Adewale Olokode ordered them to stop the protest with immediate effect just as he assured them that the authority in charge would see to their matter.

“You are embarrassing the force with your protest; you should have channeled your grievances to the appropriate quarters. You are disturbing public peace with your protests.

“As far as you are wearing this uniform we expect you to maintain high discipline as force men,” he said.

In a related development, some police officers in the state have equally complained that they were yet to be paid their duty allowance for the coverage of the July 16 governorship election.

The officers who spoke, anonymously, with newsmen, stated that about 140 officers from the State Investigation Bureau (SIB), 30 from Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD), and about 160 Mobile Police Officers (MOPOL 39) have not been paid.

One of the officers said, all other police officers, deployed for the election coverage had received their allowances, including those deployed from outside the state.

He said they have made efforts to find out the reason for the non-payment and they have not gotten any concrete feedback from the force headquarters.

The police officers who appealed to the Inspector General of Police, to look into their case said it would be against the code of service to protest in demanding for the allowance.